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Does this count as a chick flick?

Avalon High by Meg Cabot

So this is the novel that spawned the graphic novel I read a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it, much in the way one enjoys an excessively large chocolate bar for lunch. It was fun, got through it fast and then realized that I was feeling kind of malnourished.

I like Meg Cabot, or I liked her as a tweenager when I was reading her Princess Diaries (way better than the movie – I mean I love Julie Andrews but …). This book was really neat for sure. She made Elle a hero would was tolerable even after she fell head over heals in love with a guy three seconds after meeting him and that’s hard to do really. I mean, if Stephanie Meyers had pulled it off Twilight might have been almost readable. Well, maybe not.

Elle was a good character. I mean she wasn’t a genius physiological profile that speaks to the teenage girl within us all but she was smart, loyal and willing to do whatever it takes to find answers. Also to protect the boy she’s in love with. ‘Cause too much depth in a teen novel is confusing. But still I really liked her. And I really liked the twist at the end too about her alternate identity.

As a person who never gets tired of Arthur mythology the book was really neat too. I mean it was pretty obvious from the beginning who was who but watching that play out was really satisfying. Like doing a really easy puzzle. And seeing the way the the author pulled in different myths, it was all great. One thing I didn’t like, and I could be wrong here but I have never, ever read or heard of a myth in which Mordred was Arthur’s brother. Not once. I assume that this was done to avoid awkward incest stuff, which I get, but it felt kind of lame. I mean, the woman researched the name of King Arthur’s boat (did you know he had a boat? I didn’t know he had a boat) but she made up the story about Mordred being his brother. She obviously had to tweak some other things too, like claiming there’s historical evidence to suggest that all the stories of Arthur are true (last time I did my research, which was in high school I grant you, there was some to maybe suggest that there was a king who might have had a similar name kind of) but it kind of felt like a cop out. One necessary for the plot but a cop out none the less.

But besides my nitpicking I did really like this book. Certainly more than the graphic novel because some things actually happened in the book. I mean, it was light, it was fluffy, it talked about boys a lot but it was a good read.

Last movie I watched: Little Shop of Horrors. Great, now I’m singing it in my head.

Last TV show I watched: Batman. The 1992 one. Awesome. Also, I believe Batman’s shoulders are too wide to fit through doors. And Nightwing is AWESOME. Even with a mullet.